Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Is inner monologue a bad way to show character traits?

Inner monologue is used quite frequently, and it can reveal character traits that may not be revealed any other way: True feelings. Such as, if Jack is telling the truth about never cheating on Ji...

posted 7y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33017
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:51:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33017
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T07:51:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Inner monologue is used quite frequently, and it can reveal character traits that may not be revealed any other way: True feelings.

Such as, if Jack is telling the truth about never cheating on Jill, if the photograph of him doing so **had** to be faked.

The same with secret desires, dislikes, hatreds, plotting, faking friendship or even faking love or sexual attraction for nefarious purpose. Jack may have faked his love for Jill to get laid. Or alternatively, Jill may have faked her enthusiasm for Jack's clumsy and laughably stupid seduction of her, to become trusted enough by him to rob him blind.

You should not abuse inner thoughts, readers trust they are the real thing. Just like in real life, actions and dialogue can be misleading lies. Inner dialogue should be the true thoughts; I think it would be a violation of the "reader contract" to find out they were lied to by some previous passage portrayed as an inner thought or feeling.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-02-04T11:53:35Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 5